Russell T Davies To Create A Lavish TV Version Of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Doctor Who’s recreator Russell T Davies – the man who relaunched it from cult favourite to national treasure back in 2005 – is returning to BBC Wales to adapt and oversee a TV production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That’s the one about faeries. elves and a man with a name that launched a multitude of smutty gags who gets turned into a donkey. Or an ass if you want to stretch the gag even further. He’s called Bottom, okay? Don’t snigger. This is Shakespeare. People don’t even laugh at his comedies.

Anyway, according to Blogtor Who, Davies is returning to the BBC Cardiff to create the adaptation because, says Davies, “With a riot of prosthetics, CGI, magic and action, it needs the brilliant Doctor Who team in Cardiff to bring it to life.”

It will be a 90-minute adaptation directed by David Kerr (Inside No 9, That Mitchell And Webb Look, Fresh Meat) going by the title The Dream. That doesn’t mean Russell will be writing all-new dialogue, though. It is, apparently, “a truthful version… the original play, the original words, the original Shakespeare. Warm and funny, it will have as much attitude and invention as any theatrical interpretation.”

Davies enthuses: “I’ve wanted to make this for the BBC for my entire adult life and only the BBC can put on a play like this, for all the family, smack-bang in the heart of primetime.” Well, make use of the BBC while you can, Russell!